Dust control mats and other floor coverings having a pile side and a rubber backing are generally used in access ways where people tend to brush or scrape their feet in order to prevent carrying moisture and/or dirt into other areas of the premises. Normally these mats are located in areas of high pedestrian traffic such as doorways. Such mats are generally purchased and owned by industrial laundry services who contract with building owners to replace soiled mats with clean mats on a regular basis. The soiled mats undergo industrial wash processing and are then returned to use.
The art includes a number of configurations and features for various floor mats. Some patents which are believed to be illustrative of known floor coverings include U.S. Pat. Nos 3,306,808 to Thompson, et al. issued Feb. 28, 1967; 4,741,065 to Parking issued May 3, 1988; 4,886,692 to Kerr et al. issued Dec. 12, 1989; 5,227,214 to Kerr et al. issued Jul. 13, 1993; 5,240,530 to Fink issued Aug. 31, 1993; and 5,305,565 to Nagahama et al. issued Apr. 26, 1994; the teaching of all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, floor mats have conventionally consisted of a plurality of tufts in a primary backing adhered to a vulcanized thermoset rubber backing. Such a backing gives dimensional stability to the fabric surface while maintaining the mat's integrity during industrial wash processing. Such industrial wash processing generally involves aggressive rotary washing and drying operations which resemble household washing and drying operations. Hence it is a recognized requirement of rental floor mats that they be sufficiently flexible to undergo rotary washing and centrifugal drying operations without damaging either the mat or the laundry equipment. Heretofore, the production of laundrable floor mats has relied on the use of thermoset rubber backings based on nitrile polymer formulas. While such mats perform very adequately, the manufacturer of such mats has historically been presented with certain limitations due to the formation of the mats as modular units as opposed to the continuous production made possible by the present invention.
Mats formed using thermoset rubber backings require the stationary compression and application of sufficient heat and pressure to vulcanize the rubber backing and adhere it to the fabric. Such batch operations are limited by the curing rate characteristics of the thermoset rubber. Additionally, the process has historically involved cutting the thermoset rubber to length, positioning the rubber backing on a carrier belt or conveyor and thereafter laying the tufted fabric onto the rubber backing and fusing the components together. Once vulcanized, any excess rubber not necessary for the finished specified dimensions of a thermoset mat is cut away and discarded rather than being easily recycled as in the present invention. The use of a process which can deposit an appropriate backing material onto a fabric substrate in a continuous manner thereby producing a mat material which can be cut to given dimensions therefore represents a useful advancement over the art.